This week I'm a Democrat. Last week I was a Republican. Tomorrow, well, it isn't here yet. Actually, I am whatever I feel like being depending on the candidates and the issues at hand.  I feel a twinge of guilt when I receive e-mails from both parties thanking me for my support. I still wonder if I should have attended the opposite caucus to the one I attended.

But most of the time, I feel sorry for all of them.

For example, today, I feel sorry for Barrack Obama. It seems his former pastor is making some wild allegations and stirring up trouble for the presidential candidate. 

Last week, I felt sorry for Hilary Clinton. Just because she can't recall the exact details of one of the thousands upon thousands of overseas trips she has been on, doesn't make her a bad person. 

Haven't had the chance to feel sorry for John McCain yet, but I'd be willing to wager, his turn is coming.

Which leads me to the reason of my short essay here.

Are the American people so gullible, they can be swayed by the press, and just about anyone who stands on a soapbox and shouts words in our language? Since when did our nation become convinced that every word they read is true? Are we that stupid? Don't answer that.

As the elections draw closer, we are going to be subjected to a barrage of television advertising focusing on negativity and oh-so-carefully-veiled slander. These ads will cost us millions of dollars.

What a waste. I have never been swayed in any sense whatsoever, by a political television commercial. They don't change my mind about who to vote for. Perhaps they should run a poll and find out if anyone ever does  change their vote after seeing one of these small-minded waste-of-space commercials? 

Which brings me back to my first rant. Why do we believe everything we are told? 

I could tell you I have lived in four countries, been married for forty years, had several major career changes, been close friends with somebody famous, flown in an ultralight, walked on a glacier and won a million dollars.

Most of the above statements are true. Some are fabricated. I only feel like I've been married forty years and I really hope I win a million dollars but I haven't yet. 

You might have believed me because you have never known me to lie. But we don't know these people who are spouting off about the presidential candidates, and yet voters interviewed on television state they have changed their mind about so-and-so solely because of what was "said" about them by some person on television who might or might not be sane!

No wonder we are in such a mess.

I have done many things in my life I am proud of and a few I have lived to regret.

I only hope the vote I place in the presidential election this coming November is not one of the latter.